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AI for Good Innovate for Impact. Interim Report 2025

Geneva: ITU (2025), xxxiv, 828 pp.

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the way we address complex societal challenges, offering new possibilities in areas such as healthcare, climate resilience, education, and digital inclusion. The Innovate for Impact project was launched in 2024 to identify, support, and showcase practical A ... more

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Imaging and Assessing Mobile Technology for Development

Richard Musabe, John Sören Pettersson (eds.)

Newcastle upon Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2024), xvi, 186 pp.

"Several studies have already depicted the development of M4D and of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D), and that will not be repeated here. However, as this collection of chapters have sprung out from one of the M4D conferences – the M4D 2022 in Kigali – some notes ... on what have been salient at different conferences can be made. If we start with the M4D in Senegal 2014, we can see that from that conference stems a book where the chapters “initiate evocative conversations on how mobile technologies can contribute to expanding mobile participation practices” (Wamala-Larsson, Hellström, and Scharff 2015, 12). In Mozambique, in 2016, there were some contributions connecting to radio and TV technology; the M4D 2018 conference in Uganda included some papers on how utilities can be backed by subscription schemes via mobile services, as well as by apps where citizens can report dysfunctions and illicit use. The M4D 2020 did not take place, as the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the possibility of running a conference on site and it was postponed to 2022, when Rwanda saw the first blended M4D conference. The Zoom presence for several dozen participants over three days went very well and, via two cameras and two large screens at the venue site, they blended in well at the conference. The IT maturing effect caused by the pandemic was thus noticeable. Among the presentations it was noticeable that the Internet of Things and drones, often blended with machine learning, are now imaginable as “mobile technology”. Of course, drones are always mobile, and IoT sensors often travel with cargo, but it was the realisation of the affordability of these technologies for food chain, livestock, and crop management, combined with their reliance on mobile phone networks to make use of farmers’ photos and senor data, that made such presentations appropriate at a conference that focuses on affordable communication technology. While technology is a prerequisite, in this volume, based on selected contributions to that conference, we will balance some imaginations with some assessments. The focus will not be on the “new” M4D, even though we acknowledge that it is time to set up demonstration farms with IoT and machine learning, as pointed out by Ronald Katamba from Uganda in an interview (Pettersson and Rehema 2022, 145), and books are now published on Applying Drone Technologies and Robotics for Agricultural Sustainability (Raj, Saini, and Pacheco 2023, with examples from India and Zimbabwe; see also FAO and ITU 2022). Instead, the chapters selected for this book adhere to the theme of knowledge dissemination and knowledge development, as mentioned already. One chapter was invited to report from the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things, hosted by the University of Rwanda in Kigali, to illustrate the efforts to build native technological competence on an advanced level. That chapter simultaneously demonstrates the growing pan-African collaboration in the academic infrastructuring project." (Foreword, pages x-xi) more

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Trainer's Manual: Digital Literacy Training Toolkit

Hive Colab;UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2023), 53 pp.

"[...] digital divide has demonstrated the urgency of our vision of building an inclusive digital economy and made it even more critical than ever before. UNCDF’s strategy, ‘Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era’ launched in 2019, UNCDF continues to work with the government, private sector, ... more

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A Digital and Financial Literacy Toolkit

Barbara Birungi Mutabazi, Brian Tomusang

Kampala: Hive Colab;United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2023), 53 pp.

"In this toolkit, our focus is on the use of mobile phones to the maximum benefit of women, men, youth, smallholder farmers and refugees, to enable them access digital financial services." (Background, page 11)

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Fintech for Who? Demand for Digital Financial Services and FinTech in Tanzania

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2023), xi, 62 pp.

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Assessing Digital and Financial Literacy in Timor-Leste: A Survey on Knowledge, Skills and Access

Anwarul Azim Galib Ibn, Olivia Vakaosooso, Caz Tebbutt, Dawn Hoffman, Ruby Dennis et al.

Suva, Fiji: UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2023), 69 pp.

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Tech Was Supposed to Revolutionize Aid in Haiti: Then Reality Set in. Electronic Payments Were no Match for Devastated Roads and Corruption

Rest of World (2023)

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Assessing Digital and Financial Literacy in Papua New Guinea: A Survey on Knowledge, Skills and Access

Suva, Fiji: UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2023), 66 pp.

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Moving Up the Digital Ladder: The Case of Refugees Digital Financial Inclusion in Rwanda

UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) (2022), 21 pp.

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From Mobile Money to Digital Cash: Learnings from Africa’s Experience with Mobile Money for the Introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies

Bitange Ndemo, Aaron Thegeya

Potsdam: Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2022), 25 pp.

"The first adopters of mobile money were economies in sub-Saharan Africa, and over time adoption rates have increased rapidly particularly in Asia and Latin America. As of 2020, there were 1.2 billion mobile money accounts globally, with US$ 767 billion in transactions during the year. Sub-Saharan A ... more

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Country assessment to facilitate digital financial inclusion in Ethiopia

Geneva: ITU (2022), x, 63 pp.

"This report presents findings from a country assessment undertaken to facilitate digital financial inclusion in Ethiopia and gives an overview of the current digital financial services landscape in the country. It also identifies some of the barriers to digital financial inclusion and suggests how ... more

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Digital Development: Stories of Hope from Health and Social Development

Sundeep Sahay, Arunima Mukhrajee, Geoffrey Walsham, Thomas Hylland Eriksen (eds.)

Rugby: Practical Action Publishing (2022), xii, 164 pp.

"This book explores case studies across India, Kenya, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and global, comparative settings, and asks what positive impact ICT applications (Health Information Systems, Pandemic response systems, Early Warning and Response Systems, Hospital Information System and Smartphone based Ap ... more

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The Business Environment for News Media in Zimbabwe

Michelle Foster, Jason Lambert

Internews (2021), 22 pp.

"There is a growing market for factual, independent, reliable, and affordable news delivered in diverse languages in southern Zimbabwe. The local revenue sources to fund those efforts are not apparent. In an area of deep poverty, which has only been amplified by natural disasters and pandemic, large ... more

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Social Media Usage by Digital Finance Consumers: Analysis of Consumer Complaints in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. July 2019 - July 2020

Innovations for Poverty Action (ipa) (2021), 36 pp.

"Digital feedback has large potential for consumer protection. The customer experiences shared in the different social media channels have proven to be a rich source of information with the potential of answering a large number of questions. Who will make use of this data and methods going forward, ... more

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Digitization for Improved Governance: Financial Services for the Poor

Gates Foundation (2021), 60 slides

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Developing guidelines for cash transfers in Somalia

Jaki Mebur, Belinda Baah, Ken Okong'o

London: GSMA (2021), 28 pp.

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Building Resilient and Inclusive Digital Ecosystems: A Toolkit for Using Digital Payments in Development Programs

USAID;NetHope (2020), 35 pp.

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Digital Financial Services Consumer Competency Framework

Vijay Mauree, Jami Solli

Geneva: ITU;Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) (2020), 27 pp.

"The DFS Consumer Competency Framework identifies the knowledge, skills and attitudes consumers need to participate actively, safely and have trust in the digital financial services ecosystem. The DFS Consumer Competency Framework is intended for use by public authorities, regulators, DFS providers ... more

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Numérique, espaces et sociétés en Afrique

Dabié Désiré Axel Nassa (ed.)

Paris: L'Harmattan (2019), 403 pp.

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Mobile Money Ecosystem in Somalia: Summary

Matthieu Dillais, Anne-Elisabeth Costafrolaz

Altai Consulting;World Bank (2017), 48 slides

"Mobile money embodies financial opportunity in Somalia. Deemed convenient, affordable and fast, mobile money has been widely adopted. It has reached a penetration rate of 83% in urban areas, 72% in IDP camps and 55% in rural areas, compared to a penetration rate of 15 for formal bank accounts. Give ... n the depreciation of the local currency and lack of other satisfying and accessible alternatives, people and firms rely heavily on mobile money for their daily money transfers, and mobile money services have been acting as a virtual dollarized currency. Thus, mobile money has become the primary financial instrument in Somalia and Somaliland while cash usage is decreasing. The ecosystem is also already robust, with nearly two thirds of users choosing to keep funds in their mobile accounts rather than cashing them out. Large shares in the value mix of disbursements and bill and merchant payments suggest an expanding ecosystem of institutions and businesses using the system. Most of the success has been due to the home grown nature of mobile money. Mobile Network Operators have managed to nurture, from scratch, a local context appropriate, unique and compelling mobile money ecosystem that meets Somalis’ needs. This is a substantially different environment than telecommunications in countries across the rest of the African continent, which have traditionally been dominated by incoming multi nationals such as India’s Bharti or France’s Orange. Given Somalia’s complex political environment and volatile security conditions, investments in telecommunications have been almost exclusively led by Somalis, both from the diaspora and within the country. As a result, the ICT sector has been able to leverage Somali social and business networks, and has created products uniquely suited to the Somali context. While mobile money services are broadening the reach of financial services for the unbanked, the most vulnerable are more likely to be excluded from the system. Barriers to direct use by the poorest segments include cellular coverage, cost of phone ownership and use, limited access to electrical power, illiteracy and the predominance of mobile money services being offered in USD (rather than the local Shilling valued in rural areas). Nevertheless, there is strong evidence of a social impact Mobile money circulates across groups of different vulnerability levels and in a society of frictionless financial interdependence, mobile money enables more fluidity within the family and clan, and constitutes a lifeline for the poor. Mobile money transfers from NGOs and aid agencies also contribute to flows targeting vulnerable populations." (Executive summary) more